Jonnyboy Rotten Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Hi Guys, My OLP MM3 has beautiful Maple neck and fret board but it is slightly grey with grubbiness and crud. I have seen on a few threads that Pledge/Mister Muscle is out and beeswax/specialist polish is very much in. However I can't help but think that the wax/polish will simply go over the grime and grot and just make the clean wood look great but not actually remove any of the greyish discolouration. So before I treat my bass to a nice wax, what should I do to clean it before the wax/polish is applied? One thread said lighter fuel works as a grime remover. Is this ok to use? How soft/abrasive should the application cloth/implement be? Anything from a yellow soft furniture polishing cloth, through J-cloths, toothbrushes, non-scratch scourers? or should I take a warm bowl of soapy washing up liquid to it? (jus' kidding ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brensabre79 Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Assuming it has not been stripped or refinished at some point. Your OLP maple neck will probably have a lovely coat of Polyurethane (poly) varnish on it. So beeswax will be useless. Pledge / Mr Muscle is not good on Nitrocellulose (Nitro) finished necks as it melts the varnish a bit making it sticky. You should be OK with poly though. Beeswax polish is good on an unfinished neck, but you're right, on a varnished neck it will just add a coat of wax. If you want to be extra careful you can get a proprietary 'guitar cleaner' from a music store. Personally I'd just use any multi-surface polish on a poly neck - it's almost impossible to remove chemically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 I've always just used hot soapy water and kitchen roll on mine. The dirt is mixed with grease, so using a wax based cleaner just moves the crud about and seals it in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]"If you want to be extra careful you can get a proprietary 'guitar cleaner' from a music store"[/font][/color] [font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]That is what I do and it is not as expensive as people think bearing in mind you only need a tiny bit at a time but soap and warm water will do the job the only reason I use a special cleaner is that washing liquid can contain salt and that is not great for chrome hardware etc[/color][/font] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowieBass Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 If it's a poly varnish you could try metal polish on a soft pad... clean the frets at the same time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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